GREAT FALLS — Jamie Alan Cordell and his wife Tania Longtin, who admitted to trafficking methamphetamine in the community in 2006 and 2007 and absconding for more than 10 years before their arrest earlier this year in Oklahoma, were sentenced in federal court in Great Falls on Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said in a press release that Jamie, 45 years old, and Tania, 43, pleaded guilty in June to possession with intent to distribute meth and to failure to appear after pre-trial release.
Cordell was sentenced to 36 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and 400 hours of community service. Longtin was sentenced to 24 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and 200 hours of community service.
In court records filed in the case, the prosecution said Cordell was involved in distributing meth in Great Falls in 2006 and 2007 and that Longtin assisted him. Cordell made at least six trips to California to pick up loads of meth, and that Longtin, at one point, went to California to get meth for redistribution. Cordell received at least six pounds of meth from a California supplier. Six pounds of meth is the equivalent of about 21,744 doses, according to the court documents. Ultimately, eight other defendants pleaded guilty to their involvement in the overall drug conspiracy.
After their initial arrest at their home in Alta, Wyoming, in June 2007, the couple made an initial appearance on an indictment before a magistrate judge in Jackson, Wyoming. Cordell and Longtin were released on bonds on July 3, 2007, after a detention hearing and ordered to appear in U.S. District Court in Great Falls on August 14, 2007. They both failed to appear. The couple remained fugitives until January 17, 2019, when they were arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris presided over both sentencing hearings.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Betley prosecuted the case which was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, Great Falls Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service.
